Musical musings from the dark corner of a pub

With Sam Smith announced as the performer of the new Bond song Writing’s On The Wall, for the latest 007 film, Spectre, I ask Mark O’Connell, author of Catching Bullets – Memoirs of a Bond Fan – to choose his favourite Bond songs and soundtracks and I find out why he thinks Quantum of Solace is Daniel Craig’s best Bond film…

Sitting in the bar of the British Film Institute on London’s South Bank, it’s the perfect day to be chatting to writer Mark O’Connell, author of the book Catching Bullets – Memoirs of a Bond Fan.

Tickets for the latest Bond blockbuster, Spectre, have just gone on sale and Sam Smith has announced that he’s singing the song for the new film.

It’s as if all the elements of my fiendish plot have come together. Yes, Mr O’Connell – I expect you to talk…

What do you think of Sam Smith as the choice for performing the new Bond song and what sort of track are you hoping for?

Mark O’Connell: After Adele’s award-scooping turn performing Skyfall, it makes utter sense that Sam Smith follows it up with his take on a Bond song. He is an industry and audience favourite who – like Adele – is at the peak of his game when singing a Bond theme tune.

The tradition tends to be stars and names that aren’t in their first flourish of career success. But Sam Smith, and Adele before him, prove that rule is very much worth breaking. I imagine the song will be quite pared-down and not too showy, but anthemic where it counts.

Sam Smith is the first British male solo artist for 50 years to sing a Bond tune, the first out gay singer and one of the youngest performers to get the gig. He is still only 23 years old. So he was three when Goldeneye came out – ouch!

I would also put money on Sam Smith winning the Best Song Oscar at next year’s Academy Awards.

Which other artists would you most like to see record a Bond song?

MO’C: London Grammar, Goldfrapp, Kylie Minogue – I’d like to hear a new disco Bond track – but, above all, Depeche Mode. There was a rumour that they were going to do the song for The World Is Not Enough. Dave Gahan [from Depeche Mode] did a solo track called Kingdom and I thought to myself, ‘why is this not a Bond song?’

I’m also a big fan of the k.d. lang song Surrender, which was used in the end credits of Tomorrow Never Dies. I just think it’s a really good song. I’m not always a big fan of David Arnold’s songs, but I think that one really worked, having the cache of [lyricist] Don Black.

All Time High [from Octopussy] is a beautiful piece of music – it’s autumnal and has lovely lyrics. I like the Bond songs that don’t sound like Bond songs. I think all the best Bond songs don’t initially sound like Bond songs.

You Only Live Twice is a beautiful, rolling song – it works so well in the film. In recent years, the tunes haven’t been incorporated in the films as much. For me, the best Bond song is A View To A Kill by Duran Duran – for all the obvious reasons.

I was nine years old when A View To A Kill came out [in 1985] – for me, it was the first time a Bond song felt contemporary and current. I really love that song, but half of it makes no sense and the lyrics don’t scan that well….

A View To A Kill is my favourite Bond film, but it’s not the best one. I think the best Bond film is On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and it has the best soundtrack – it’s melodic and melancholic at the same time. It’s quite sinister and foreboding as well –there’s a sci-fi B movie vibe going on with the Moog synthesizers. I love the track Journey to Blofeld’s Hideaway – I had it played at my wedding, when everyone was taking their seats. Only a few people knew what it was.

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The soundtrack from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is not an obvious choice to be played at a wedding – it does have macabre connotations, as Bond’s new bride, Tracy, is killed in the film…

MO’C: I did think that we couldn’t use that music, as it meant that one of us had to die. But no one got shot at the wedding – there were just a few dodgy cab rides home.

I also love the track Wine With Stacey [from A View To A Kill] – I had it played on a violin at my wedding. It’s a great piece of music.

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And what about your least favourite Bond songs…

MO’C: My least favourite is Sheryl Crow’s Tomorrow Never Dies. It is a whiny lament about cars breaking down or something. Well, it certainly sounds like someone who cannot get a lift home in the middle of nowhere. It is too on the nose. No Bond song should ever mention “Martini, girls and guns”.

I suppose A-ha’s The Living Daylights hasn’t aged that well in hindsight, but it was fine at the time.

I find it hard to hate any of the Bond songs. I don’t even mind Alicia Keys and Jack White’s spin of the title song wheel. It works with the titles [of Quantum of Solace], which, for me, is where a Bond song has to work first and foremost.

I get shot down for this, but I’m no fan either of Eric Serra’s The Experience of Love [from Goldeneye] or Scott Walker’s – mostly unused – song from The World Is Not Enough, Only Myself To Blame. Sometimes a song is not used for good reason.

Goldfinger is my favourite Bond song – it set the blueprint for what a Bond song should sound like… I also likeFrom Russia With Love,Diamonds Are Forever, You Only Live Twice and Thunderball.

MO’C: I didn’t used to like Goldfinger as a song – I thought it was too obvious. But it’s actually a really good piece of music.

Did you like Thomas Newman’s soundtrack for Skyfall?

MO’C: I did. I love the track New Digs and the music when Bond and M are driving through the Highlands – it’s melancholy. Thomas Newman does Americana very well and I was curious to see if he could adapt to that British Bond template – I think he did all right. A lot of Bond music fans, who tend to be very John Barry minded, came down on Newman big time. They said they couldn’t play his soundtrack in the car… It worked in the film, so that’s all it needs to do. It was fine and I’m curious to see what he does with the next one [Spectre]. Whereas Skyfall was quite classical – a mahogany Bond film with libraries and the [British] Empire – now [with Spectre], we’ve got Morocco and Mexico….

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I loved Skyfall – it’s a good film before it’s a good Bond film and that’s rare. It’s got a few plot holes, but you show me any film – or Bond film – that hasn’t. I like its whole Britishness – it caught the zeitgeist, with the Olympics, the Jubilee, the Union Jack and London 2012. I always wanted to see a Bond film that was predominantly set in London and the UK.

Are you looking forward to Spectre?

MO’C: I love that Sam Mendes is directing again and there’s obviously some faith in the script. Will it be as successful as Skyfall? Who knows? The wind got under the wings of Skyfall... With Skyfall, it felt like an event. I remember hearing builders whistling the tune.

I’m a big fan of Quantum of Solace – Daniel Craig’s second outing as Bond, which met with a lot of criticism when it came out. Where do you stand on that?

MO’C: I like it – it’s Daniel Craig’s best Bond film! I like the way that it’s a sequel to Casino Royale and it’s a stepping stone in-between Casino Royale and Skyfall. If Casino Royale was a slap in the face, then Quantum of Solace is the bruise you get afterwards. There’s a sadness and a melancholy to it – it makes no sense at some points – but I think Spectre may be kind to Quantum of Solace…

When I first saw Quantum of Solace, I came out of the cinema feeling elated – it was like a ’70s thriller, like The Parallax View. There was a real pace to it. I need to go back to it – I will try and watch the Craig films again before Spectre comes out.

There’s a suggestion that Spectre may be Daniel Craig’s last Bond film. Who would you like to see play Bond next? Will the producers have to reboot the franchise once more?

MO’C: I think every Bond film is a reboot – there’s been three reboots with Daniel Craig…. I think the next Bond will be an unknown – a proper actor that Barbara Broccoli’s had her eye on for a while. She scours the theatre world. Daniel Craig came from an indie film – Layer Cake.

I would not dismiss Henry Cavill – although I may have changed my mind after seeing The Man From U.N.C.L.E – and I’d love to see Michael Fassbender do it, but I think he’s too old and has too much of a Richard Burton / Richard Harris screen presence, which is not quite Bond.

I also wouldn’t dismiss Nicholas Hoult and Dan Stevens and I’d love to see Tom Hardy do it, but he’s had a few personal demons, which maybe wouldn’t sit too well with the whole press thing – Bond has to be an ambassador for the British film industry. It’s a hard one. I wouldn’t want to have to recast it – I think Craig might end up doing another one.

What’s your view on the whole ‘black Bond’ debate? Anthony Horowitz, author of the new James Bond novel, Trigger Mortis, recently caused controversy when he said that black actor Idris Elba was ‘too street’ to play Bond. He was forced to issue an apology…

MO’C: I don’t think he needed to apologise – there was a PR machine seizing the moment for the launch of the book. I actually find it really racist when people say ‘can we have a black Bond? Should it be Idris Elba?’ There were other black actors in the ’60s other than Sidney Poitier…

I have no problem with whatever race or background Bond is, but I do think he needs to be British.

Catching Bullets – Memoirs of a Bond Fan by Mark O’Connell is out now, published by Splendid Books.